Description

Young Blood is a collection of plays for young people with the following aims:
to publish some of the most interesting, challenging, contemporary writing for young performers in one volume.
to extend the life of the plays beyond their first production.
to make them available to young people throughout the UK
The plays in Young Blood are set in many different places; Jamaica, ancient Greece, London's East End, the club scene and a world at the end of a hole in a jumper. These are plays about love, racism, absent fathers, leaving home, betrayal, drugs. Above all, in one way or another, each of them involves journeys and choices. Choices about who to love, where to live and what to be. You can use the plays or extracts of them to explore a particular issue or to look at that issue from a different angle. Each of the plays uses a different theatrical style, from the naturalism of Geraniums to the surreal world of The Girl who fell through a hole in her Jumper and the fast filmic style of Out of their Heads.

This collection doesn't include production or teachers' notes. There are no fixed rules about how to use the plays. Produce the whole play to a paying audience or work on scenes. Play about with the casting. Double parts or have six people playing the same character. The most important thing is to have fun with the language, characters and staging so that young people enjoy working on the plays. All of the plays in this collection have a unique theatrical vision. Combine that with the energy, commitment and imagination of a group of young people and the results will definitely be worth watching! Includes the plays: The Girl who fell through a hole in her Jumper by Naomi Wallace and Bruce McLeod: A girl falls into a fantastical world - how will she get home?

The Search for Odysseus by Charles Way: An angry and awkward adolescent searches for his lost father all the way to the edge of the world.

Darker the Berry by J. B. Rose: A comic Caribbean Cinderella - two sisters struggle to break free from the poverty of island life.

Geraniums by Sheila Yeger: The battle of Cable St. retold and set against the political choices of young people in the 90s.

Out of their Heads by Marcus Romer: The friendship and betrayal of three young people who take a trip beyond anything they ever expected.